It is in the Gallic provinces more particularly that the glandiferous trees produce agaric;[2277] such being the name given to a white fungus which has a strong odour, and is very useful as an antidote. It grows upon the top of the tree, and gives out a brilliant light[2278] at night: this, indeed, is the sign by which its presence is known, and by the aid of this light it may be gathered during the night. The ægilops is the only one among the glandiferous trees that bears a kind of dry cloth,[2279] covered with a white mossy shag, and this, not only attached to the bark, but hanging down from the branches as well, a cubit even in length: this substance has a strong odour, as we have already[2280] stated, when speaking of the perfumes.
The cork is but a very small tree, and its acorn is of the very worst[2281] quality, and rarely to be found as well: the bark[2282] is its only useful product, being remarkably thick, and if removed it will grow again. When straitened out, it has been known to form planks as much as ten feet square. This substance is employed more particularly attached as a buoy to the ropes[2283] of ships’ anchors and the drag-nets of fishermen. It is employed also for the bungs of casks and as a material for the winter shoes[2284] of females; for which reason the Greeks not inappropriately call them[2285] “the bark of a tree.”
There are some writers who speak of it as the female of the holm oak; and in the countries where the holm does not grow, they substitute for it the wood of the cork-tree, more particularly in cartwrights’ work, in the vicinity of Elis and Lacedæmon for instance. The cork-tree does not grow throughout the whole of Italy, and in no[2286] part whatever of Gaul.
CHAP. 14. (9.)—TREES OF WHICH THE BARK IS USED.
The bark also of the beech, the lime, the fir, and the pitch-tree is extensively used by the peasantry. Panniers and baskets are made of it, as also the large flat hampers which are employed for the carriage of corn and grapes: roofs of cottages,[2287] too, are made of this material. When a spy has been sent out he often leaves information for his general, written upon fresh bark, by cutting letters in the parts of it that are the most juicy. The bark of the beech is also employed for religious purposes in certain sacred rites.[2288] This tree, however, when deprived of its bark, will not survive.
CHAP. 15. (10.)—SHINGLES.
The best shingles are those made of the wood of the robur; the next best being those furnished by the other glandiferous trees and the beech. Those most easily made are cut from the wood of the resinous trees, but they do not last,[2289] with the exception of those made of pine. Cornelius Nepos informs us, that Rome was roofed solely with shingles down to the time of the war with Pyrrhus, a period of four hundred and seventy years. It is well known that it was remarkable for the fine forests in its vicinity. Even at the present day, the name of Jupiter Fagutalus points out in what locality there stood a grove of beeches;[2290] the Querquetulan Gate shows where the quercus once stood, and the Viminal Hill is the spot where the “vimen”[2291] was sought in ancient times. In many other parts, too, there were groves to be found, and sometimes as many as two. Q. Hortensius, the Dictator, on the secession of the plebeians to the Janiculum, passed a law in the Æsculetum,[2292] that what the plebeians had enacted should be binding upon every Roman citizen.[2293]
CHAP. 16.—THE PINE.
In those days they regarded as exotics, because they did not exist in the vicinity[2294] of the City, the pine and the fir, as well as all the other varieties that produce pitch; of which we shall now proceed to speak, in order that the method of seasoning wine, from the very first, may be fully known. Whereas there are several among the trees already mentioned in Asia or the East, that produce pitch, in Europe there are but six varieties of kindred trees that supply it. In this number there are the pine[2295] and the pinaster,[2296] which have long thin leaves like hair, and pointed at the end. The pine yields the least resin of them all: in the pine nut, indeed, of which we have previously spoken,[2297] it is sometimes to be found, but hardly in sufficient quantities to warrant us in reckoning the pine among the resinous trees.